


a gentle haunting.

by transclawed



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, yasha caleb and beau are only mentioned in this!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 11:56:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20600384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transclawed/pseuds/transclawed
Summary: molly is around, sometimes. it takes one to know one, and cadeuces doesnt mind much when he comes around.just a small drabble!





	a gentle haunting.

Cadeuces sometimes feels breath on his skin, when he's with the rest of them. Maybe its the pink hair, bright colors, or maybe its the warmth of the wild mother buoying the spirit along, but there's sometimes a hint of lavender in the air. A silent chuckle, a wry grin, the reflection of a flash of red eyes in the water. He doesnt know who it is, of course, though he's heard talk of the previous vibrant soul. It feels like him, even if he never met him.

He doesnt tell them the other still watches them, from afar. Still travels with them, unseen, unheard. They have an understanding, from one who's died before, to another, they do.

Cad talks to him, on occasion, and the responses reminds him of how the great mother speaks to him. There are no words, but one way or another, you get the drift.

Cadeuces Clay and Mollymauk Tealeaf are the keepers of the mighty nein. The caretakers, the comforters, friends. The ones with a foot in the grave and the other planted firmly in rich, dark soil, growing something beautiful.

Sometimes, he feels him drift away, pulled in another direction. Tugged towards his old friend, even when she has left the group. There's no molly without yasha, no flowers without the rain, without the storm.

Calmly, as always, he watches them. He offers tea, healing, an ear to listen. And he observes. Grief is a a funny thing, and one very familiar to cadeuces, in all its twisting forms. Beau remembers with a sense of worship, a pedestal for a purple tiefling to rest upon. Yasha, she swallows herself in an attempt to keep herself together. She remembers him from the beginning. his beginning, a broken bird. Caleb has a perfect memory, but even that is tinted with bias. With care. He remembers family, when he considers few to be such. But their fiendish lost friend was just that. A friend. Not one to look up to without criticism, but to look across the field with equal standing, no higher nor lower. He reigns, in the empty expanse of death, forever. But it is less empty when he visits, his heart almost beats with aching, longing. Love. Cadeuces makes sure he is seen, is felt, even when the others are too full of life to notice. Sometimes, it just takes a little step past the threshold to see those who've left.

cad doesnt mind, really. after all, the mighty nein will always need a caretaker, one who's returned from the grave with a gentle smile, and bright eyes. he can feel warmth, from their visitor, knows that they both care for each other too. strangers, and yet. perhaps someday, they'll meet again, without barriers of life and death. he hopes so, he thinks to hinself with a smile as he sips at a cup of tea. that would be nice.


End file.
